Expert Tips on Wildlife & Nature Photography
Court is an avid nature and wildlife photographer and naturalist Expedition Leader for Natural Habitat Adventures. His background in wildlife and conservation biology led him to pursue a joint Ph.D. in ecotourism and entomology. As Editor in Chief of The Natural Photographer, he is eager to share his photography knowledge and creative guidance with readers through comprehensive tutorials and blog posts. You may view more of his photography at www.courtwhelan.com
2 Comments
Jay Hull
April 1, 2023 at 8:58 am
Court Whelan, Ph.D.
April 21, 2023 at 9:13 am
I agree completely. I started shooting this way a few years ago when it first became an option, but two recent advances have made it even more appealing: (a) the strength of new mirrorless cameras in shooting at higher ISOs with markedly less noise (I moved to a Canon R5), and (b) the advent of post-processing software that does a great job at cleaning up what noise does exist (I use DXO PureRaw 2; others opt for Topaz AI). Some photographers these days are advocating increasing shutter speed in almost all wildlife photos (e.g., 1/1000 to 1/2000 or even higher depending on the subject) to make sure the image is tack sharp with the philosophy that you can almost always avoid or clean up grain due to higher ISO but eliminating blur is a more intractable problem (despite post-processing sharpening software).
hi Jay, excellent points here! (I’m also shooting on an R5–simply amazing!). Great points on the shutter speed…definitely something you can’t easily correct in post-processing!